It turns out women actually might prefer men who they view as
"not athletic" over men they think are "too athletic" when it
comes to picking a mate.

The recent
series of studieson included a survey of 5,541
Americans who ranked 17 "dealbreakers" when it comes to
considering a "committed relationship" with someone.

And surprisingly, "too athletic" outranked "not athletic" on the
list of potential dealbreakers for women. While 10% of women
called "too athletic" a dealbreaker, only 6% saw "not athletic"
as a dealbreaker — meaning women might actually prefer couch
potatoes to gym rats when it comes to dating.

For men, both "too athletic" and "not athletic" were
equally repugnant — they're viewed as dealbreakers for 7% of
those surveyed.

The top three dealbreakers for both sexes were "disheveled
or unclean appearance," "lazy," and "too needy."
Surprisingly, men and women's dealbreakers didn't differ
too much by the numbers.

Here's the entire list of dating dealbreakers:

Skye Gould/Tech Insider

Of course, the study isn't perfect.

As
noted by TI Science Editor Lauren
Friedman, although it was large, it relied on
self-reports. People's dealbreakers may not always be what they
say they are, since some may not be willing to admit their
actual dealbreakers or even be aware of them. There are also
likely many qualities people avoid that are not the
researchers' list of 17.